Tuck Frump!

Summary: This asswhole is NOT "My president."
During the campaign, I heard/read folks who opined that what they critically called "incrementalism" was a failed/failing strategy for "change."
I would direct them to:
"The Great, Incremental, GOPhux/USer/Fascist Coup, 1952-2016." It began unobtrusively, with the Hunt Bros and their ilk in the John Birch Society in the 50s, though the roots run back into the '30s. Ike laughed at them, foolishly.
He apparently didn't understand the power of big money and no scruples. Pretty dumb for a five-star general, it seems to me. Harry Truman had signed the 1947 National Security Act, which founded the CIA and legitimated all future supervisory authoritarianism in the USA.
The first overt act of the emerging coup was JFK assassination, in '63, and nobody laughed (probably authorized by Allen Dulles and supervised by Poppy Boosh, who was always a Company man).
Then we had tricky Dick-face and demented Ronnie Raygoon, who consolidating the previous gains, and introducing the estimable arts of 'rat-fucking" and the Powell Memorandum, the blue-print for reversing the counter-culture gains of the '60s and '70s, and for the Conservaturd Restoration. Powell went on the SCROTES to supervise its implementation.
For example, there was the Clinton impeachment, which was purely political and aimed at delegitimizing his presidency. After which the SCROTES/Sandra O'Connor installed the Boosheviks: invasion, torture, war crimes, and terrorism ensued, and authoritarianism was seriously tightened.
They led to Prez. Lowbar who, as a "double minority" President, couldn't withstand the concerted push to GOPhux delegitemize his presidency. He couldn't evenm seat a SCROTE Justice.
And now ElTrumpo steps up to finish it all off.
ElTrumpo's JOB is to strip the presidency of any residual, popular, political legitimacy that might still remain after 16 years of intermittent DIM OCCUPANCY.
You MUST understand:
EVERYTHING he does or does not do is directed at that goal.
ElTrumpo has been placed in the position he is in for the sole and only purpose of demolishing every and any part of the Federal state that the People could call upon obstruct the final, total, wholesale, corpoRat appropriation of the machineries of govt. and the remaining riches of the commons. This is the end of the "American Experiment" with democracy.
If nothing stops him, nothing WILL stop him....

Feliz Cumpleaños, mi padre!
Happy Birthday to my father John O'Brian Konopak, known all his life as "Jack"--seen here, age 24, on his way to meet his ship for the war in the Pacific in January, '43, with my mother. It was on their wedding day, waiting for the train that would take them first to Santa Fe and thence to San Francisco.
He would have been 97 today. (Much like I am,) he wasn't GREAT at anything, but he was pretty damn good at whatever he did. I think he might have stayedin the Navy, but Mother wouldn't have it.
He did many things for a living, mostly involving sales of some sort or another. His last career was as a high school language-- English and Spanish -- and social studies teacher in Pojoaque, NM. It's an unincorporated, semi-rural community comprising three distinct native pueblos (Nambe', Pojoaque, and San Ildefonso), along with Hispanic farmers and ranchers, and gringo's of all kinds from all over, some wealthy retirees and many of whom worked in Los Alamos, which was only about 15-20 miles east.
Virtually every student who passed through Pojoaque High between 1968 and 1986 was in one or another of the classes he taught (including my brother, Peter). There was practically nowhere he went between the Monte Vista,Colorado and Las Cruces, or from Clovis to Gallup, where he didn't run into, and exchange fond greetings with, former students.
His wife, my/our, mother, preceded him in decease by about a year. She would have been 79 her next birthday (also my own 54th). Cigarettes, basically, killed them both.

Woody'z Amazing "Cold Turkey" Thanksgiving.
I went out yesterday for dinner with an old friend, in Santa Fe. Figuring I'd be back by evening, at least, I left the backdoor ajar so Budreaux could get a nose through and open it if he needed to use the facilities.
Thus arranged, I departed.
The drive was lovely, albeit sparse. The dun of winter lies everywhere. I arrived in plenty of time, and mine hostess and I chatted amiably about this and that, old friends, recent deaths, etc., while she finished the dinner preparations.
I had a beer, and then another, all the while scarfing cheese and crackers. Soon the bird was done, and the side dishes were in their bowls, I carved the turkey, and we commenced to eat.
It was delicious. My pal fixed "her famous" mashed spuds, delicious dressing, and a onion-and-pea veggie side, all of which, in small portions, I consumed avidly. Lately, my appetite hasn't been what it was. I also ate sparingly of the bird because I've had bad experiences with the last two times I'd consumed home-prepared bird.
I thought for a minute it seemed okay, but withing mere moments of my swallowing the last bite on my plate, I was overcome with nausea.
Clutching my mouth to prevent projectile spewage, I stumbled toward the bathroom, but I lost my balance and fell flat on my back and clonked my head on the floor outside the bathroom, and of course I spilled it all, all over myself and the floor. I guess I was out, for a moment, too. I opened my eyes to see my horrified hostess, peering down at me saying, Oh' I'm so glad. I thought you were dead.
It was a mess, which mine generous, patient, immensely kindly and tolerant hostess cleaned up, while I stood, or sat, mainly unmoving,  in shock from the head knock and at my bad 'manners.'
The upshot was that she and I felt I'd better spend the night in her spare room, since the cops were out in their multitudes for the drive home time on both ends and and on the hiway between. It was about 9 when I went to sleep.
I awoke at around 6:30, and left asaqap. I said good bye through the door, again uttered my profound apologies and thanks, and drove back home...where I'd left the back door open, all night. And man, the ol' perrara was muy frio; but Budreaux had made a nice little nest on the bed.
Tomorrow, I'm gonna call a florist and send her some flowers or a pretty plant....

A Boat of Goat?

Cold Turkey: Woody'z undergoing an experiment.
 I've temporarily suspended my consumption of alcohol.
 I haven't had anything alcoholic to drink since last Saturday night. But this isn't about temperance. 
This is when I learned of gout.when I found out about gout.
For the past MANY months, I have been experiencing fierce, radiating pain the big toe, and the next two toes, of my tight foot, intermittently to regularly.
Meanwhile, my foot felt like there was always a bunch of sock under the ball of my right foot, which was never there when I removed my shoe to check. I believe it was throwing me off my stride, and causing, or at least contributing to, my general ambulatory difficulties.
I mentioned the symptom to a pal who is just about a degenerate and dissolute as I, and he said, "That sounds like gout."
Such a thing had never occurred to me, but I turned straight away to the Google (39,100,000 hits) and pretty soon learned that there was indeed a well-researched, well-established link between alcohol consumption and gout.
 This presented me with a scientific opportunity to investigate 1) whether there were a causal connection between MY alcohol consumption and my pains, and 2)whether I could quit booze cold turkey.
The answer, after one week, so far is a qualified "Yes" to both questions.

Just Another Day...Not!

I've repeated this story several times. I was a HS Senior in '63, and had a job at a local radio station as night disc jockey. But I was fascinated by the place, and bored as shit with school, so I cut class a lot and hung out there making myself useful.
This day in November, '63, I was in the teletype room, where the AP printer ground out news stories, crop reports, stock market data and sports scores all day, when the bell on the teletype went crazy. The bell rang when an important story was going to follow. One bell was unusual; two bells were an emergency, like tornadoes; three bells was total war. Then, the damn bell rang four, five, ten times...
I scurried over to see what the story could be that was that important, and read the hed: "Kennedy shot in Dallas." The first reports didn't declare he was dead. That didn't come til later.
I was shaken. I ripped the first page of the story off the machine and took it to the booth where the AM guy--his name was Ed Bush--was on the board.
I opened the door to the booth and handed the bulletin to him. He read it and his face went ashen.
He told me to show it to Carl Goodwin, the owner. I ran to Carl's office. Carl took the bulletin, read it, his hand quivered, and then went back to the booth, moved Ed from the mic and made the announcement himself.
All this within about 10 minutes of that Friday morning (Santa Fe's an hour earlier than Dallas) that changed the course of history....

The End Of The Line

Looking for reasons beyond misogyny, xenophobia and racism gives The Trump's voters and campaign FAR too much credit. And it excuses what, to my mind, is inexcusable. It excuses folks who thought 1) Hillary was a lock and that, 2) therefore their vanity votes for Stein and Johnson were "harmless." 

And so they might have been, if Hillary had, indeed, held the "lock." 

But she didn't. She won the popular vote, by a whisker, a microscopic percentage, but those seemingly tiny, vanity-inspired hemorrhages, in places like Florida, Michigan, Virginia and Wisconsin cost her the election, and cost US at least four years of fascism-lite.

SO I've been saying my good-byes today. This really is the end of something, an epoch, an era, an age. A change has been tolled, the bells rung... I heard someone on an NPR show today say that now the press is going to HAVE to become more adversarial--that was the word--and I thought where have you BEEN for the past 20 or 30 years, child? The "press" is not going to treat The Trump with any but the gentlest kid gloves. They'll celebrate his successes, ignore and/or excuse his failures. He's their baby...

The biggest danger is that The Trump's electoral victory will legitimize and normalize the racial hoistilities and antipathies of his supporters....and it is ALREADY coming out in anecdotal incidents all over the country. Google "Day One in Trump's Amerikkka."  That nematode on NPR Wednesday was saying that The Trump was a "wake-up call" for journalists, and pointed to a need for adversarial journalism, and I thought: Are you SHITTING me? Where has the child been for the last 30 years of relentless, press stenography?

HDRC was not my favored candidate. None were. That said, I fancied I had the a normal citizen's duty to attempt to vote for the outcome that did the least harm. "Greatest good" is an illusion. Least harm can be felt.

Throughout the campaign, I had continually counseled a Rawlsian ethic for choosing for whom to vote. I rejected the "Lesser evil" trope as conceding the wrong points, and advocated the choice who represented the Least Harm for the Greatest Number. After the primaries and the Convention, that was Hilary Clinton. She (alone) could stop The Trump.

That seemed to me to be a more important project than voicing my personal, vain objections to a system I've been trying unsuccessfully to change since the 60s. Trump, I believed HAD to be stopped. I voted for Sanders in the primary, though by then the issue had been settled. When Hillary Clinton was nominated, she became my choice.

But "The Trump" prevailed despite my efforts. I "compromised my principles," in vain, again, apparently; I guess I'm grumpy that "you" didn't sacrifice yours in the same (albeit doomed) enterprise, and I guess a little disappointed, at that....

This appears to be the inglorious end of the fabled American political experiment, culminating in the 'election' of the most careless, willfully ignorant, intellectually lazy, morally corrupt, incompetent, dishonest, and reprehensible charlatan and mountebank ever installed in such high office with so much power. The Trump is the embodiment of EVERYTHING that makes "Loathsome White Men" such loathsome people. He's the Ultra Ugly American. He reeks of entitlement and privilege. He heaps excess upon excess, maladroit and malaprop in the same breath.

AND THIS is what all that nobility of aspiration, all that impassioned, enlightenment rhetoric, all that "Of, for and By" the people has led to. The institution of the presidency will not recover from this; at least, it is not supposed to. 

These are historic days. This is the terminus of that particular road.

It is "The End."

The End Of The Line

Looking for reasons beyond misogyny, xenophobia and racism gives his voters FAR too much credit. And it excuses what, to my mind, is inexcusable. It excuses folks who thought 1) Hillary was a lock and that, 2) therefore their vanity votes for Stein and Johnson were "harmless." 

And so they might have been, if Hillary had, indeed, held the "lock." 

But she didn't. She won the popular vote, by a microscopic percentage, but those tiny, vanity-inspired hemorrhages, in places like Florida, Michigan, Virginia and Wisconsin cost her the election, and cost US at least four years of fascism-lite.


SO I've been saying my good-byes today. This really is the end of something, an epoch, an era, an age. A change has been tolled, the bells rung... 

I heard someone on an NPR show today say that now the press is going to HAVE to become more adversarial--that was the word--and I thought where have you BEEN for the past 20 or 30 years, child? The "press" is not going to treat The Trump with any but the gentlest kid gloves. They'll celebrate his successes, ignore and/or excuse his failures. He's their baby...

The biggest danger is that The Trump's electoral victory will legitimize and normalize the racial hoistilities and antipathies of his supporters....and it is ALREADY coming out in anecdotal incidents all over the country. Google "Day One in Trump's Amerikkka."  That nematode on NPR Wednesday was saying that The Trump was a "wake-up call" for journalists, and pointed to a need for adversarial journalism, and I thought: Are you SHITTING me? Where has the child been for the last 30 years of relentless, press stenography?

HDRC was not my favored candidate. None were. That said, I fancied I had the a normal citizen's duty to attempt to vote for the outcome that did the least harm.,

Throughout the campaign, I had continually counseled a Rawlsian ethic for choosing for whom to vote. I rejected the "Lesser evil" trope as conceding the wrong points, and advocated the choice who represented the Least Harm for the Greatest Number. After the primaries and the Convention, that was Hilary Clinton. She (alone) could stop The Trump.

That seemed to me to be a more important project than voicing my personal, vain objections to a system I've been trying unsuccessfully to change since the 60s. Trump, I believed HAD to be stopped.

But "The Trump" prevailed despite my efforts. I "compromised my principles," in vain, again, apparently; I guess I'm grumpy that "you" didn't sacrifice yours in the same (albeit doomed) enterprise, and I guess a little disappointed, at that....

This appears to be the inglorious end of the fabled American political experiment, culminating in the 'election' of the most careless, willfully ignorant, intellectually lazy, morally corrupt, incompetent, dishonest, and reprehensible charlatan and mountebank ever installed in such high office with so much power. The Trump is the embodiment of EVERYTHING that makes "Loathsome White Men" such loathsome people. He's the Ultra Ugly American. He reeks of entitlement and privilege. He heaps excess upon excess, maladroit and malaprop in the same breath.

AND THIS is what all that nobility of aspiration, all that impassioned, enlightenment rhetoric, all that "Of, for and By" the people has led to. The institution of the presidency will not recover from this; at least, it is not supposed to. 

These are historic days. This is the terminus of that particular road.

It is "The End."

Another Personal Inventory, with Ships

A replica of HMS Surprise at the San Diego Maritime Museum, based on HMS Rose and used in the film.

1. ARE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
My father's first name, my mother's family surname in the middle.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
About two years ago when I had to put my big, black dog, Hanna Stella, to sleep.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
When I concentrate.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Smoked Ham...

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
None

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
That would depend on a LOT of factors. I don't have many "friends."

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT?
What do YOU think????

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
Removed when I was still in single digits, along with adenoids.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
Probably. I made two parachute jumps.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
I have no favorites. I buy cold cereals and mix 'em up; always add blueberries.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Usually wear slip-ons or sandals

12. DO YOU THINK YOU'RE STRONG?
Mentally yes, but my physical strength is waning.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
I cannot think of a flavor I don't like.

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
Intelligence (or lack of same)

15. RED OR PINK?
Navy Blue

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF?
I'm lazy. Truly, bone-deep, INDOLENT. It is my worst feature. Lazy as paint.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO RE-POST THIS?
I don't care.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
Beige shorts and black thongs.

20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?
A bowl of chicken-chipotle-corn-potato chowder.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
Dave Brubeck

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
Royal Blue

23. FAVORITE SMELLS?
The ocean! Roasting green chile, caramelized onions, good weed, castrol at the track, bacon.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
Laurelle Danton, DVM.

25. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
What Yanks call "soccer." The European leagues--La Liga, Ligue Un, Premier League, the Bundesliga, and Serie A--all start their 2016-17 terms within two weeks.

26. HAIR COLOR? REAL?
Real: Grey/white with some remaining blonde.

27. EYE COLOR?
Steel blue.

28. Do you wear contacts?
Nope. Glasses.

29. FAVORITE CUISINE?
New Mexican and south Louisiana.

30. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
If I watch movies, at all, I like funny ones. I prefer documentaries.

31. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
The most recent Muppet movie, with Frank Langella and Ricky Gervais in it...

32. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
Intricate blues, blacks, and greys in compressed patterns, on a light grey background.

33. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Summer. The heat can be enervating, but I hate the cold....

34. HUGS OR KISSES?
Do I gotta choose?

35. FAVORITE DESSERT?
Flan

36. MOST LIKELY TO COMMENT-
What the FUCK?

37. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND
Libertarians.

38. What book are you reading now?
Barthes's "Mythologies,"  Patrick O'Brian's "Reverse of the Medal."

39. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
Big Dog/Big Kahuna.

40. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. LAST NIGHT?

I didn't watch anything last night.

41. FAVORITE SOUND?

Big surf.

42. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?
And the Beach Boys.

43. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?
Southeast Asia.

44. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
I'm told I'm pretty good at talking "on my feet.".
45. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
Chicago.

Where's # 17?
Fotocredit: By RufusTeleStrat at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6816969

Now, I just sit back and wait!

Who Were You In High School?

A request from a F-book pal who grew up in the same town as I, but graduated 8 years later: "Tell us about your SENIOR year of high school! The longer ago it was, the more fun the answers will be!!"
The year was: 1964
1. Did you know your spouse? No, I had met none of them by then.
2. Did you car pool to school? With my sister(s), only; I drove.
3. What kind of car did you have? 1957 VW Cabriolet
4. What kind of car do you have now? 2003 Lexus GS 300/1997 Ranger XLT.
5. It's Friday night...where were you? Working at the radio station, KTRC, til midnight; then at the Senate Lounge til closing.
6. What kind of job did you have in high school? Disc-jockey at the local radio station.
7. What kind of job do you have now? Retired professor, former carpenter and journalist.
8. Were you a party animal? Yes.
9. Were you a cheerleader? No
10. Were you considered a jock? No, but I ran track in my junior year.
11. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? I was in drama and speech/forensics (Ms. Rose Fidel.)
12. Were you a nerd? I never thought so.
13. Did you get suspended or expelled? Kicked out of class regularly. Suspended once. Never expelled. I cut school for most of my senior year.
14. Can you sing the fight song? Nope.
15. Who was your favorite high school teacher? Favorite? Jerry West, Godfrey Reggio and Don Gamache
16. Where did you sit for lunch? At Burt's Burger-Bowl or the Lotaburger...
\17. What was your school name? St. Michael's High, Santa Fe.
18. What was your school mascot? the Horsemen
19. If you could go back and do it again, would you? Knowing then what I know now? Beuhler!Q!!!
20. Did you have fun at Prom? I attended the St. Mike's Prom, the Loretto High Prom, the Pojoaque High Prom, and the Los Alamos Prom; each with a different gal. Had a fine time...
21. Do you still talk to the person you went to Prom with? Haven't seen any of 'em since 1964.
22. Are you planning on going to your next reunion? I went to the 40th, skipped 50, and will probably attend #60, should I live so long.
23. Are you still in contact with people from school? A few.
24. What were your school's color? Blue & White

Lest We/You Forget, It Started Here!

Lest we forget: The Brooks Brothers' Riots.<
For my money, the turning point in 2000 was the Brooks Brothers Riot, when paid political aides invaded the Miami-Dade Election bureau and halted the recount through physical intimidation.

There's a foto of it:
On Nov. 19, 2000, (via Wiki) "Hundreds of "paid GOP crusaders" descended upon South Florida to protest the state's recounts,[1] with at least half a dozen of the demonstrators at Miami-Dade paid by George W. Bush's recount committee.[2] Several of these protesters were identified as Republican staffers and a number later went on to jobs in the Bush administration.[3]
The "Brooks Brothers" name reinforces the allegation that the protesters, in corporate attire, sporting "Hermès ties"[4] were astroturfing, as opposed to local citizens concerned about counting practices.
The demonstration was organized by Republican operatives, sometimes referred to as the "Brooks Brothers Brigade",[5] to oppose the recount of 10,750 ballots during the Florida recount. The canvassers decided to move the counting process to a smaller room and restrict media access to 25 feet away while they continued. At this time, New York Rep. John Sweeney told an aide to "Shut it down."[2][4] The demonstration turned violent, and according to the NY Times, "several people were trampled, punched or kicked when protesters tried to rush the doors outside the office of the Miami-Dade supervisor of elections. Sheriff's deputies restored order." DNC aide Luis Rosero was kicked and punched. Within two hours after the riot died down, the canvassing board unanimously voted to shut down the count, in part due to perceptions that the process wasn't open or fair, and in part because the court-mandated deadline was impossible to meet.[6][7][8]

Morality & Voting: The Dilemma of the "Lesser" Evil.

There sure is a LOT of hysterical, "true-believer"-kind, ideological purity on display in the DIM primary contests between Bernie and Hillary.

One of them will be the Party nominee (and there's no point in moaning about "third parties."). That person will HAVE to defeat whatever clown the GOPhux throw up. If, after the past 35 years, you can placidly view the prospect of ANY of them in the WhiteHouse, you should turn in your driver's license, surrender your kids, and turn in your guns, because you're dangerously demented.

Promising NOT to support or even vote for Hillary if she prevails in the primary contest--which I have encountered in MANY whom I previously respected--is a symptom and index of the  social and economic "privilege" which the folks proclaiming it enjoy.

It's their way of saying "I'm so protected and insulated by my privilege that I will be "safe enough," no matter what shit the GOPhux may pull, with complete control of the Gummint. It won't affect me."

(Though they'll deny it signifies any such thing. But they're already delusional.)

When the choice is between varieties of CorpoRat war mongers, I'll select the one with the least toxic DOMESTIC agenda.

All/ANY USer leader/President will (MUST!) necessarily and enthusiastically prosecute the Empire's international/regional programs. No one person can interfere. The Empire will roll on until it doesn't anymore. That's NOT something that's within the individual's or the voters' power to decide.

The determining factor to me is who will minimize DOMESTIC damage.
I'm a Rawlsian*: Act so as to endorse/support the LEAST HARM to the greatest number. That, to me, means that if Bernie is vanquished, and Hillary is the nominee, there is a moral imperative to vote for her.

In any case, whosoever finally wins, the GOPhux won't let any Dim govern.

They haven't, since 1992. It's nothing "personal." They are intent that NO ONE but they should hold or use actual power in this country. They've been organizing and preparing for this for almost 70 years.

Prez Lowbar provided the perfect excuse and opportunity to expand this design, because he was 'disqualified' on TWO counts: 1) he's a "Dim," and 2) he's not WHITE. The perfect storm, you might say.

History has amply demonstrated that when the lesser evil is defeated, usually it is by a GREATER one.

I'll vote for Bernie in the Primary, here, in June. But if he does NOT win the nomination, and Hillary does, I shall vote for Hillary, AGAINST the fucking GOPhux.

*Rawlsian: An acolyte of John Rawls, (late) Harvard ethicist and political philosopher whose major work was/is "A Theory of Justice."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Theory_of_Justice

Morality & Voting: The Dilemma of the "Lesser" Evil.

There sure is a LOT of hysterical, "true-believer"-kind, ideological purity on display in the DIM primary contests between Bernie and Hillary.

One of them will be the Party nominee (and there's no point in moaning about "third parties."). That person will HAVE to defeat whatever clown the GOPhux throw up. If, after the past 35 years, you can placidly view the prospect of ANY of them in the WhiteHouse, you should turn in your driver's license, surrender your kids, and turn in your guns, because you're dangerously demented.

Promising NOT to support or even vote for Hillary if she prevails in the primary contest--which I have encountered in MANY whom I previously respected--is a symptom and index of the  social and economic "privilege" which the folks proclaiming it enjoy.

It's their way of saying "I'm so protected and insulated by my privilege that I will be "safe enough," no matter what shit the GOPhux may pull, with complete control of the Gummint. It won't affect me."

(Though they'll deny it signifies any such thing. But they're already delusional.)

When the choice is between varieties of CorpoRat war mongers, I'll select the one with the least toxic DOMESTIC agenda.

All/ANY USer leader/President will (MUST!) necessarily and enthusiastically prosecute the Empire's international/regional programs. No one person can interfere. The Empire will roll on until it doesn't anymore. That's NOT something that's within the individual's or the voters' power to decide.

The determining factor to me is who will minimize DOMESTIC damage.
I'm a Rawlsian*: Act so as to endorse/support the LEAST HARM to the greatest number. That, to me, means that if Bernie is vanquished, and Hillary is the nominee, there is a moral imperative to vote for her.

In any case, whosoever finally wins, the GOPhux won't let any Dim govern.

They haven't, since 1992. It's nothing "personal." They are intent that NO ONE but they should hold or use actual power in this country. They've been organizing and preparing for this for almost 70 years.

Prez Lowbar provided the perfect excuse and opportunity to expand this design, because he was 'disqualified' on TWO counts: 1) he's a "Dim," and 2) he's not WHITE. The perfect storm, you might say.

History has amply demonstrated that when the lesser evil is defeated, usually it is by a GREATER one.

I'll vote for Bernie in the Primary, here, in June. But if he does NOT win the nomination, and Hillary does, I shall vote for Hillary, AGAINST the fucking GOPhux.

*Rawlsian: An acolyte of John Rawls, (late) Harvard ethicist and political philosopher whose major work was/is "A Theory of Justice."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Theory_of_Justice